Category Archives: Gluten Free

My friend Lisa is a great runner and triathlete. If she wasn’t awesome enough already she also is an amazing chef. She even made me a gluten-free cake for my birthday, it was so delicious! Lisa found out that a local store and deli, The Garlic Press, was having a gluten-free cooking class. I haven’t ever taken a cooking class before. I was a bit intimidated that the menu was quite elaborate and I’m not at Lisa’s level of cooking. However, this class was different in that only the chef cooked and we watched. It worked out perfectly because then I could spend three hours catching up with Lisa and learn some new recipes.

Everything tasted amazing! Lisa and I made notes of adjustments and plan to make some of this for our husbands. Thank you Lisa for finding this class and thinking of me. It was such a great time!

For anyone who doesn’t Green Monster, you need to asap! They are delicious and packed full of nutrients. Basically you make a standard smoothie and add green spinach and you can’t even taste it, but it adds such a boost to your energy.

My Hammer Vanilla Soy Green Monster post long run is:

Banana

Unsweetened Almond Milk

One scoop of Hammer Vanilla Soy

Spoonful of almond butter (any nut butter will do, or you can omit)

Big handful of raw fresh spinach

Blend in a blender and then add ice and blend again.

Depending on the amount of ice and ingredients it can make quite a bit. I store the extra in a cup and freeze for later.

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Rob, Drew and I went up to the Chicago area for the Alexian Brothers Half Marathon. A half marathon in the midst of a mid-west heat wave. We knew it would be stifling.

The Expo was a quick packet pickup including a nice tech shirt, aluminium bottle, and reusable grocery bag. We made time for a few pictures.

We had pre-race dinner at P.F. Changs since I needed a gluten free meal. If you need gluten free food, definitely check out P.F. Changs. They have GF items listed in the regular menu so no big GF announcement and menu run down from the waiter needed. The GF Chicken Lettuce Wraps and GF Steamed Ginger Salmon was so delicious! Afterward we walked around and found a Red Mango, a yogurt store with similar flavors and toppings of Pinkberry. We were stuffed from dinner so we had a tiny bit to investigate. 🙂 It was no Pinkberry though, it is still my fave.

We got to sleep early, but were awakened in the middle of the night to record setting rainfall and storm. We were jarred awake multiple times in the night to the thunder and lighting strikes. Chicago O’Hare received 8 inches of rain in the matter of a couple hours. We woke up to hearing that Chicago had areas of flooding. We had to re-route our way to the race because of flooded roads.

The weather was muggy, but cooler from the storms, around 75ish degrees. This fitness weekend included a 5K and 10K, but what was more unique was that there was multiple distance inline skate races occurring through the weekend. In fact our pace “car” to lead the race was an inline skater!

My hips have been sore and I wasn’t sure what I would be able to do at this race. Rob suggested we just run together and make it a training run. I told him that I wanted to try and run my half marathon pace (which would be slower for him) to see if I could shake things out. After the first three miles I was still on pace, but my hip soreness wasn’t improving and my legs still felt heavy. I slowed my pace and was hoping to stay in marathon goal pace for the remainder of the run.

My legs felt heavy. On a good note my stomach was intact! It was so nice to race without a rumbling stomach, now if only my legs would cooperate. Rob was positive and encouraging, but I was frustrated with how stale I felt. Since this wasn’t a race-race, I backed off the pace and took it easy since I wasn’t having a good day. We even walked through three water stops. Normally I don’t take gatorade on a course because the mix can be done wrong and it can upset my stomach, but since we were at mile 10 we walked and got some gatorade and got surprised that the flavor wasn’t the standard lemon-lime, but grape! It was yummy!

Rob and I finished the race hand in hand, which we have never done. 🙂 I will post pictures when they have them available.

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It’s been a crazy hectic week, but we are managing to throw some fun into the mix. I’ll post workouts and such later. Just a couple pictures from our flying adventures. I’ll be updating the nutrition page with some gluten-free favorites too.

Sunday after the race we headed over to dinner with Drew’s family. They are so sweet and made us feel right at home. Rob and Drew’s dad went for a flight in his Archer.

Work priorities are still filling my plate the most, but I’m also trying to focus on my lifestyle change to gluten-free. It will take a bit more planning, but luckily the changes so far don’t seem super dramatic. It’s just figuring out a new way to make recipes at home. I’m trying to look at it as a discovery of new grains and foods to try. I will be updating my nutrition page with my favorite gluten-free finds. 🙂

Here is what I made for dinner the other night. I used polenta sliced and heated in a pan with olive oil. Then I layered the slices with fresh basil from our garden and topped it with a little herb olive oil and had gluten-free pasta sauce on the side. I also had a gluten-free “wheat tasting” baguette that was super yummy for dipping.

Rob’s version had basil herb cheese in between the layers. I’m still staying lactose free until my stomach is better. I may try a little when I’m feeling better to see if it’s something I can have moderately.

It was delish! The only thing I would change is I would use a little less olive oil next time, the polenta didn’t need very much. Polenta is very versatile and it says that it can be used in dishes that call for pasta or grains. If you have any great polenta or gluten-free recipes, please share! I’m sure restaurant choices will be a bit trickier. I’ve started mapping out some gluten-free menus. If you have a fave place give me a shout! Thanks! 😀